This document provides an overview of secure cloud computing. It discusses key topics such as cloud computing infrastructure security, cloud storage and data security, identity management in the cloud, security management in the cloud, privacy, audit and compliance, cloud service providers, and the impact of cloud computing. The document outlines these topics and provides details on definitions, challenges, standards, and best practices within each area as it relates to secure cloud computing.

1. Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham
November, 2012
A Comprehensive Overview of
Secure Cloud Computing

2. Outline
 What is Cloud Computing
 Cloud Computing Infrastructure Security
 Cloud Storage and Data Security
 Identity Management in the Cloud
 Security Management in the Cloud
 Privacy
 Audit and Compliance
 Cloud Service Providers
 Security as a Service
 Impact of Cloud Computing
 Directions
 Reference: Cloud Security and Privacy: Mather,
Kumaraswamy and Latif, O’Reilly Publishers

3. What is Cloud Computing?
 Definition
 SPI Framework
 Traditional Software Model
 Cloud Services Delivery Model
 Deployment Model
 Key Drivers
 Impact
 Governance
 Barriers

4. Definition of Cloud Computing
 Multitenancy - shared resources
 Massive scalability
 Elasticity
 Pay as you go
 Self provisioning of resources

5. SPI Framework
 Software as a Service (SAAS), Platform as a Service (PaaS),
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
 Several Technologies work together
- Cloud access devices
- Browsers and thin clients
- High speed broad band access
- Data centers and Server farms
- Storage devices
- Virtualization technologies
- APIs

6. Traditional Software Model
 Large upfront licensing costs
 Annual support costs
 Depends on number of users
 Not based on usage
 Organization is responsible for hardware
 Security is a consideration
 Customized applications

7. Cloud Services Delivery Model
 SaaS
- Rents software on a subscription basis
- Service includes software, hardware and support
- Users access the service through authorized device
- Suitable for a company to outsource hosting of apps
 PaaS
- Vendor offers development environment to application
developers
- Provide develops toolkits, building blocks, payment
hooks
 IaaS
- Processing power and storage service
- Hypervisor is at this level

8. Deployment Models
 Public Clouds
- Hosted, operated and managed by third party vendor
- Security and day to day management by the vendor
 Private Clouds
- Networks, infrastructures, data centers owned by the
organization
 Hybrid Clouds
- Sensitive applications in a private cloud and non sensitive
applications in a public cloud

9. Key Drivers
 Small investment and low ongoing costs
 Economies of scale
 Open standards
 Sustainability

10. Impact
 How are the following communities Impacted by the Cloud?
 Individual Customers
 Individual Businesses
 Start-ups
 Small and Medium sized businesses
 Large businesses

11. Governance
 Five layers of governance for IT are Network, Storage Server,
Services and Apps
 For on premise hosting, organization has control over
Storage, Server, Services and Apps; Vendor and organization
have share control over networks
 For SaaS model all layers are controlled by the vendor
 For the IaaS model, Apps are controlled by the organization,
Services controlled by both while the network, storage and
server controlled by the vendor
 For PaaS, Apps and Services are controlled by both while
servers, storage and network controlled by the vendor

12. Barriers
 Security
 Privacy
 Connectivity and Open access
 Reliability
 Interoperability
 Independence from CSP (cloud service provider)
 Economic value
 IR governance
 Changes in IT organization
 Political issues

13. Cloud Computing Infrastructure Security
 Infrastructure Security at the Network Level
 Infrastructure Security at the Host Level
 Infrastructure Security at the Application Level
 Note: We will examine IaaS, PaaS and SaaS Security issues at
Network, Host and Application Levels

14. Security at the Network Level
 Ensuring data confidentiality and integrity of the
organizations data in transit to and from the public cloud
provider
 Ensuring proper access control (Authentication,
Authorization, Auditing) to resources in the public cloud
 Ensuring availability of the Internet facing resources of the
public cloud used by the organization
 Replacing the established network zones and tiers with
domains
 How can you mitigate the risk factors?

15. Security at the Host Level
 Host security at PaaS and SaaS Level
- Both the PaaS and SaaS hide the host operating system
from end users
- Host security responsibilities in SaaS and PaaS are
transferred to CSP
 Host security at IaaS Level
- Virtualization software security
 Hypervisor security
 Threats: Blue Pill attack on the hypervisor
- Customer guest OS or virtual server security
 Attacks to the guest OS: e.g., stealing keys used to
access and manage the hosts

16. Security at the Application Level
 Usually it’s the responsibility of both the CSP and the
customer
 Application security at the SaaS level
- SaaS Providers are responsible for providing application
security
 Application security at the PaaS level
- Security of the PaaS Platform
- Security of the customer applications deployed on a PaaS
platform
 Application security at the IaaS Level
- Customer applications treated a black box
- IaaS is not responsible for application level security

17. Cloud Storage and Data Security
 Aspects of Data Security
 Data Security Mitigation
 Provider Data and its Security

18. Aspects of Data Security
 Security for
- Data in transit
- Data at rest
- Processing of data including multitenancy
- Data Lineage
- Data Provenance
- Data remnance
 Solutions include encryption, identity management, sanitation

19. Data Security Mitigation
 Even through data in transit is encrypted, use of the data in
the cloud will require decryption.
- That is, cloud will have unencrypted data
 Mitigation
- Sensitive data cannot be stored in a public cloud
- Homomorphic encryption may be a solution in the future

20. Provider Data and its Security
 What data does the provider collect – e.g., metadata, and how
can this data be secured?
 Data security issues
- Access control, Key management for encrypting
 Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability are objectives of data
security in the cloud

21. Identity and Access Management (IAM) in the
Cloud
 Trust boundaries and IAM
 Why IAM?
 IAM challenges
 IAM definitions
 IAM architecture and practice
 Getting ready for the cloud
 Relevant IAM standards and protocols for cloud services
 IAM practices in the cloud
 Cloud authorization management
 Cloud Service provider IAM practice

22. Trust Boundaries and IAM
 In a traditional environment, trust boundary is within the
control of the organization
 This includes the governance of the networks, servers,
services, and applications
 In a cloud environment, the trust boundary is dynamic and
moves within the control of the service provider as well ass
organizations
 Identity federation is an emerging industry best practice for
dealing with dynamic and loosely coupled trust relationships
in the collaboration model of an organization
 Core of the architecture is the directory service which is the
repository for the identity, credentials and user attributes

23. Why IAM
 Improves operational efficiency and regulatory compliance
management
 IAM enables organizations to achieve access cont6rol and
operational security
 Cloud use cases that need IAM
- Organization employees accessing SaaS se4rvidce using
identity federation
- IT admin access CSP management console to provision
resources and access foe users using a corporate identity
- Developers creating accounts for partner users in PaaS
- End uses access storage service in a cloud
- Applications residing in a cloud serviced provider access
storage from another cloud service

24. IAM Challenges
 Provisioning resources to users rapidly to accommodate their
changing roles
 Handle turnover in an organization
 Disparate dictionaries, identities, access rights
 Need standards and protocols that address the IAM
challenges

25. IAM Definitions
 Authentication
- Verifying the identity of a user, system or service
 Authorization
- Privileges that a user or system or service has after being
authenticated (e.g., access control)
 Auditing
- Exam what the user, system or service has carried out
- Check for compliance

26. IAM Practice
 IAMN process consists of the following:
- User management (for managing identity life cycles),
- Authentication management,
- Authorization management,
- Access management,
- Data management and provisioning,
- Monitoring and auditing
- Provisioning,
- Credential and attribute management,
- Entitlement management,
- Compliance management,
- Identity federation management,
- Centralization of authentication and authorization,

27. Getting Ready for the Cloud
 Organization using a cloud must plan for user account
provisioning
- How can a user be authenticated in a cloud
 Organization can use cloud based solutions from a vendor for
IAM (e.g., Symplified)
- Identity Management as a Service
 Industry standards for federated identity management
- SAML, WS-Federation, Liberty Alliance

28. Relevant IAM Standards, Protocols for Cloud
 IAM Standards and Specifications for Organizations
- SAML
- SPML
- XACML
- OAuth (Open Authentication) – cloud service X accessing
data in cloud service Y without disclosing credentials
 IAM Standards and Specifications for Consumers
- OpenID
- Information Cards
- Open Authenticate (OATH)
- Open Authentication API (OpenAuth)

29. IAM Practices in the Cloud
 Cloud Identity Administration
- Life cycle management of user identities in the cloud
 Federated Identity (SSO)
- Enterprise an enterprise Identity provider within an
Organization perimeter
- Cloud-based Identity provider

30. Cloud Authorization Management
 XACML is the preferred model for authorization
 RBAC is being explored
 Dual roles: Administrator and User
 IAM support for compliance management

31. Cloud Service Provider and IAM Practice
 What is the responsibility of the CSP and the responsibility of
the organization/enterprise?
 Enterprise IAM requirements
- Provisioning of cloud service accounts to users
- Provisioning of cloud services for service to service
integration’
- SSO support for users based on federation standards
- Support for international and regulatory policy
requirements
- User activity monitoring
 How can enterprises expand their IAM requirements to SaaS,
PaaS and IaaS

32. Security Management in the Cloud
 Security Management Standards
 Security Management in the Cloud
 Availability Management
 Access Control
 Security Vulnerability, Patch and Configuration Management

33. Security Management Standards
 Security Manage3ment has to be carried out in the cloud
 Standards include ITIL (Information Technology
Infrastructure Library) and ISO 27001/27002
 What are the policies, procedures, processes and work
instruction for managing security

34. Security Management in the Cloud
 Availability Management (ITIL)
 Access Control (ISIO, ITIL)
 Vulnerability Management (ISO, IEC)
 Patch Management (ITIL)
 Configuration Management (ITIL)
 Incident Response (ISO/IEC)
 System use and Access Monitoring

35. Availability Management
 SaaS availability
- Customer responsibility: Customer must understand SLA
and communication methods
- SaaS health monitoring
 PaaS availability
- Customer responsibility
- ‘PaaS health monitoring
 IaaS availability
- Customer responsibility
- IaaS health monitoring

36. Access Control Management in the Cloud
 Who should have access and why
 How is a resources accessed
 How is the access monitored
 Impact of access control of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

37. Security Vulnerability, Patch and Configuration
(VPC) Management
 How can security vulnerability, patch and configuration
management for an organization be extended to a cloud
environment
 What is the impact of VPS on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

38. Privacy
 Privacy and Data Life Cycle
 Key Privacy Concerns in the Cloud
 Who is Responsible for Privacy
 Privacy Risk Management and Compliance ion the Cloud
 Legal and Regulatory Requirements

39. Privacy and Data Life Cycle
 Privacy: Accountability of organizations to data subjects as
well as the transparency to an organization’s practice around
personal information
 Data Life Cycle
- Generation, Use, Transfer, Transformation, Storage,
Archival, Destruction
- Need policies

40. Privacy Concerns in the Cloud
 Access
 Compliance
 Storage
 Retention
 Destruction
 Audit and Monitoring
 Privacy Breaches

41. Who is Responsible for Privacy
 Organization that collected the information in the first place –
the owner organization
 What is the role of the CSP?
 Organizations can transfer liability but not accountability
 Risk assessment and mitigation throughout the data lifecycle
 Knowledge about legal obligations

42. Privacy Risk Management and Compliance
 Collection Limitation Principle
 Use Limitation Principle
 Security Principle
 Retention and Destruction Principle
 Transfer Principle
 Accountab9lity Principle

43. Legal and Regulatory Requirements
 US Regulations
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
- US Patriot Act
- Electronic Communications Privacy Act
- FISMA
- GLBA
- HIPAA
- HITECH Act
 International regulations
- EU Directive
- APEC Privacy Framework

44. Audit and Compliance
 Internal Policy Compliance
 Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC)
 Control Objectives
 Regulatory/External Compliance
 Cloud Security Alliance
 Auditing for Compliance

45. Audit and Compliance
 Defines Strategy
 Define Requirements (provide services to clients)
 Defines Architecture (that is architect and structure services
to meet requirements)
 Define Policies
 Defines process and procedures
 Ongoing operations
 Ongoing monitoring
 Continuous improvement

46. Governance, Risk and Compliance
 Risk assessment
 Key controls (to address the risks and compliance
requirements)
 Monitoring
 Reporting
 Continuous improvement
 Risk assessment – new IT projects and systems

47. Control Objectives
 Security Policy
 Organization of information security
 Asset management
 Human resources security
 Physical and environmental security
 Communications and operations management
 Access control
 Information systems acquisition, development and
maintenance
 Information Security incident management
 Compliance
 Key Management

48. Regulatory/External Compliance
 Sarbanes-Oxley Act
 PCI DSS
 HIPAA
 COBIT
 What is the impact of Cloud computing on the above
regulations?

49. Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)
 Create and apply best practices to securing the cloud
 Objectives include
- Promote common level of understanding between
consumers and providers
- Promote independent research into best practices
- Launch awareness and educational programs
- Create consensus
 White Paper produced by CSA consist of 15 domains
- Architecture, Risk management, Legal, Lifecycle
management, applications security, storage,
virtualization, - - - -

50. Auditing for Compliance
 Internal and External Audits
 Audit Framework
- SAS 70
- SysTrust
- WebTrust
- ISO 27001 certification
 Relevance to Cloud

51. Cloud Service Providers
 Amazon Web Services (IaaS)
 Google (SaaS, PaaS)
 Microsoft Azure (SaaS, IaaS)
 Proofpoint (SaaS, IaaS)
 RightScale (SaaS)
 Slaeforce.com (SaaS, PaaS)
 Sun Open Cloud Platform
 Workday (SaaS)

52. Security as a Service
 Email Filtering
 Web Content Filtering
 Vulnerability Management
 Identity Management

53. Impact of Cloud Computing
 Benefits
- Low cost solution
- Responsiveness flexibility
- IT Expense marches Transaction volume
- Business users are in direct control of technology
decisions
- Line between home computing applications and
enterprise applications will blur
 Threats
- Vested interest of cloud providers
- Less control over the use of technologies
- Perceived risk of using cloud computing
- Portability and Lock-in to Proprietary systems for CSPs
- Lack of integration and componentization

54. Directions
 Analysts predict that cloud computing will be a huge growth
area
 Cloud growth will be much higher than traditional IT growth
 Will likely revolutionize IT
 Need to examine how traditional solutions for IAM,
Governance, Risk Assessment etc will work for Cloud
 Technologies will be enhanced (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
 Security will continue o be a major concern